Adapting to God's Unfolding Creation

Adapting to God's Unfolding Creation

                  Adapting to God’s Unfolding Creation

It is difficult to deny that there are truths for us to acknowledge by what is observable and consistent in God’s ever evolving creation. One is that God is incomprehensible being infinite and eternal. Others are: He is loving, compassionate, understanding, and divinely forgiving. His creations are perfect; nevertheless, many of us reject this, at least behaviorally, when reality is beyond our limited abilities to understand or contrary to life styles we have chosen. Humans have been given freewill with the capacity to disobey or obey Him, adore or dishonor Him, and while we are finite, some of us act as if we are infinite, even gods. For purposes of this article, there is one truth that we all seem to disregard to varying degrees: God’s direction to love, protect, care for, forgive, and truly treat all others as equals. Another thing, among the billions of solar systems in our galaxies and billions of galaxies in the universe, to our knowledge, we humans are His only creation given the gift to say no to Him, or to love Him back by living yes.

These are interesting times, much like times in the past with problems and misunderstandings left unresolved that often lead to perverted conflicts and inhuman relations.  I think that many of our church leaders today do not appreciate the depth of discontent, alienation, and antagonism that people desiring spirituality and religions based on love, compassion, and mutual communications are experiencing. Too often these leaders are distracted by self-interests, hierarchical and authoritarian positioning, and dogmatic polemics disregarding what the church itself, the congregation, believes that God wants us to do, live by what He said and did. Living spiritually has been often overshadowed by excessive rules and rituals, as well as, theological, epistemological, psychological, and ontological disagreements, even burning at the stakes.

The world is always evolving, which means changing culturally, experientially, and behaviorally due to our increasing ability to see and understand, although limitedly, the ways of God’s creations. The reality that change and adapting to it is inherently in the nature of creation not always seen as obvious or perhaps, it is seen but not readily accepted by many. How can there not be a corresponding adapting and changing of our cultures and conduct to comply with the unfolding of human nature? How can we retain the old interpretations of truths in creation that are not in keeping with those now being shown to us by God? Some of us rigidly adhere to what they claim are truths, interpreted literally or metaphorically, that are based primarily on archaic views of nature. Of course, essential realities such as, love, compassion, and forgiveness are Divine truths; therefore, they are constant even though no one can comprehend them completely.

 The earth being flat and people not being equal certainly do not fit the glimpses of the Eternal that God has revealed to us. Because we can see these as mistakes from the past in the present, it is intended that we honestly accept them as untrue, even deceptive. How then can hate, being racist, torturing, striving for a disparity between the obscenely rich and painfully poor be justified? Who can honestly deny that the Eternal God is beyond our capacity to understand except for what He reveals to us? Yet, we pathetic finite and arrogant humans do just that.

Examples  of humans living within the whole of nature that needs to be examined to see what of our orthodoxies and canons need examination include: an honest definition that human life begins at conception while human beings begin when the mind itself can function intuitively or in awareness regardless of how primitive that functioning may be; an acceptance that God has for His reasons chose to have eleven or more percent of us humans genetically homosexual, and being consistent with what we understand of His nature to be is love, all humans including homosexuals are loveable and should be loved as His creations; a true acceptance based on logic and empirical evidence that women being maternally unique are, at least, equal in rights and social governance making paternalism invalid. All but the culturally deceived or insecure cannot accept that women are blessed by nature to cooperate spiritually and materialistically with the Holy Spirit; consequently, they cannot be impure or less than men.  As is obvious by listening and observing the caring and conflicts that exist today, we must accept that the Eternal, Our Lord, does not change reality to fit human interpretations, but instead our cultures, laws, social order, and ecological conditions must adapt and change continuously to comply with God’s ceaseless creativity. Always searching for whatever truth we may be able to recognize, and to follow the words and examples of what Jesus the Lord said and did is the perfect model for what we humans must do to have love and compassion for others and ourselves.

Religions, for example, often posit their own authority, rules, and rituals as dogma and canon law. Too often, their pronouncements have sounded as if “God made another mistake” which they have to correct. This they justify stating that God established a hierarchy of generalists directed by oligarchical leadership to make their own rules and to disregard those of Jesus. I find no words in the gospel giving the authority of Peter being passed on to any other leaders in our churches. The conflicting positions taken and the aberrant behaviors of the clerics and others in churches over the years suggest that their performance is likely to be inconsistent with what Our Lord awarded us disciples. The rationale for having a church administrative, even a theological structure of synergistic discussion is understandable due to the theological and management problems of the first centuries; however, the practice of old cultures and their traditional leadership of males passing on authority to males that was expected to become orthodox is invalid, proven to be self-limiting, and a shunt to the energy required for healthy organizational change. In the first centuries of church history, actually in our time as well, there are heretical practices dispersed and rapidly expanding geographical communities with misogynistic, male insecure, Judaic, Hellenistic, and Manichean influences. Of note, the male primacy in the early churches and empires continue to maintain sexual biases of inequality today.

Giving early church leaders who were fearful and threatened by heretical anarchy spreading among different areas at that time the benefit of the doubt, they followed their educational and cultural reasoning which was dualistic, stoic, and empirical. Ah, but today so many have strayed and empowered to the point that, at least, I hear, “God made another mistake.”

Our Country in Pain, Shame, and Moral Decay

                Our Country in Pain, Shame, and Moral Decay

 

“Yes, that is the way it is. It is a tough world, competitive. If you want to get ahead, to succeed, you do what you have to do. When you go to work in the morning and leave the little woman and kids or little man and kids at home, they expect you to take care of them, feed them and provide for their futures. Yes, of course, many persons with less power than us, a lot of families working financial and health problems, the poor and disadvantaged, even our veterans will have to suffer.” I heard this yesterday from my neighbor who was plunking a ‘vote for’ sign in his front lawn, later from a colleague at the office, and then again today in a car repair shop and a restaurant. I was struck that for some reason these positions were spoken defensively and defiantly. Why the polemics, the need to justify what for so long has been an undercurrent driving most Americans?

I asked for an explanation during these brief but surprisingly combative encounters hoping to find what was behind their spiel. Where did this obvious resentment, hate, noxious swirl of reactionary, self-serving narcissism come from, this vindictiveness that is creating a frightening stench in our country? Hearing even more snide and decadent statements, I concluded, “Forget love and compassion because America has been decaying with pro-materialistic, secular immorality, and a lessening of relevant religious leadership by many who have forgotten that their purpose is to serve,  and not to promote their own authority or that of the institutions to which they belong.

Sadly, I hear increasing amounts of venomous lies and abuses most every day on the radio and TV, as well as, manipulation rhetoric that includes, “Whether by enemy fire or friendly fire, there are always casualties; people die.” Have you noticed how often words like these are spoken by persons in a matter of fact manner, no signs of empathy or remorse to be seen?

If this reality bothers you, as it does me, you may find yourself sharing your disappointment and deeply growing concern for our country as it leaks out; no, bursts out pent up disgust on persons who were once thought of as our neighbors. It is as if we  have been thrown overboard into a swamp of power and profit possibly never to find our way back to the warmth of family belonging, the warmth of sharing ourselves at the table or , for some the warmth of the hearth.

 I haven’t kept score but it seems that half of the people some of us share these fears and observations with agree with us and react with a common sadness and frustration. For me, I might as well be talking to myself in a mirror. Then there is the other half of the people with whom you might have shared your feelings. This can be like talking to strangers with minds so closed that their obsession with immediate lashing out and personal gain have built a new society of masters and lesser beings. We used to call these beings slaves, serfs and the like while showing no empathy, no sense of responsibility for those who suffer. Then again, maybe what I see is still worse with so little compassion given to those who for many reasons have become the innocent casualties. Is it more painful for the parents or for the children of the middle class and poor to experience this ugly half look and cold talk, thrown at them impatiently and with a smug smile of superiority?

It is almost a cliché how the second half of people you find that are closed to common good and compassion justify their statements and actions with an amazing lack of critical thought. How could so many who claim they are educated be so naïve, so oblivious to the pains of the great depression and major recessions, the needless and cruel wars, and the increasingly visual suffering of so many human masses being shown in real time on TV in our homes or on devices we carry in our own hands anywhere? Then sounding like they are reading from a common script, they say, “You do what you have to do to get ahead, and that is the name of the game,” Are such persons acting as if they are really trying to explain the facts of life. Oh, I hope this is just a passing time in history, another vile time for us humans, with the help of God, of course, to resolve. We have done so in the past, and we must do so today.

In my watching and discussions with people from different walks of life recently, I unfortunately hear things like, “Somebody put it in simple terms, a scientist whose name I can’t remember, ‘survival of the fittest’. Not only that, but when you have big money, you invest and that creates jobs. I am tired of the whining, wimp-talk about people losing their jobs and homes, their kids not getting a real education, and millions being denied health care.” This time in our lives, in our history, there are not just speed bumps to cross; there are mountains to climb.

I told this to one challenging individual today who retorted, “Is that true? Listen, success means being an insider where the power and money are, the touchdown, and the winner who gets the spoils,” essentially the same words claimed earlier by the person at the office.

“Let me be clear about what you call success and happiness,” I returned the challenge. “Maybe you will be happy and maybe not, but won’t your touchdown cause many families in our America to suffer? I am talking about our American families, so many we fought and died for, the kind who fought and died for us. I need to say this because what I heard and the way I heard it did not match the values I learned in grammar school, in church, and at home?”

Naturally, there was a counter-challenge, “Hello, I learned that too, but my family and friends convinced me we are capitalists, not socialists or communists. My dad lived the way you said and did he make it to the top the same as a capitalist? Really…Sorry what’s your name? Do you mind if I call you dummy? You are one of those who say you’re responsible and doing your best, but get real! If you worked harder, bit the bullet and made the hard choices, hung around with successful people at dinners, parties, board rooms, and at the nineteenth tee; ah, forget it. I can see you’re an elitist or one of those expecting a hand out, another entitlement. You must have missed a class one day.” The person’s face flushed but showed no empathy, only contempt even stating that he expected me to expose those he pays to keep the government from enforcing checks and balances, not to mention passing new laws that might keep the wheelers and dealers from a new, shady investment, another home, or more power and profit.

“When you amass great wealth, and that could take all your life, then what?” I probed keeping it simple because the discussion was becoming antagonistic rather than exploratory.

“What? Huh! Then I get old and my friends and the people who know of me will smile, maybe be jealous; not what I can expect from you n’er-do-wells! What then, do you mean retire?” the person responded bluntly.

“Yah, what then?” I mean finally retire,” I continued. “What about Lazarus at the door?”

“Who the hell is Lazarus, and what door?”

“How about feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, healing the sick…,” I was abruptly interrupted.

“Oh, boy. Now are you going to talk religious stuff, God?  Let’s talk real world,” the person reacted with what seemed like a question-statement. “You people make me sick,” he first hesitated and then vented in disgust. “I pay taxes, give to charity as my tax documents prove, hire my share of workers and will pay for their health care as long as they are employed by me or until the laws are changed. Let’s see your tax returns and see who gives the most, you or me?”

I was getting nowhere. It was like talking to a stump. “Just one more question, please? The way I see it, the pendulum of history never stops; we fight the same wars, with the same tribes, in the same places; the rich get richer and eventually there’s a revolt and with a revolt there is death. Do you see we are polarizing again into no-denying class warfare right here where we are standing? Look around. It is happening all around the world, but this time we don’t have millions of people, we have billions.”

http://drjim-fullyalive.blogspot.com; “How the Family Goes, So Goes Everything” by Dr. James McMahon

The Ugly Truth; It Is Up to Us

I hear Congressional and White House spokespersons say that their embarrassing display of so-called bi-partisan negotiations over the debt ceiling bill this week is over. No it is not, because the clear threat of "I am willing to drive the country's economy over the cliff and let our credit rating fall for the first time in our nation's history" was used to hold all of us hostage. Well, you did drive us over the cliff and your political positions will prevent repairing the damage you have caused without a change in priorities from those of your special-interests that control you to healing our people's wounds. No it is not, because critical issues that emerged during our elected officials' deliberations such as, our country's antagonistic polarization; wide-spread, moral decadence; incompetent leadership; and governmental operational ineffectiveness cannot be ignored. No it is not, because too often voters mill around faultfinding, casting blame, but take little corrective action that allows irresponsible, right-wing Republicans and conservative Democrats to hurt, betray, and leave our country dysfunctional. No it is not, because the callous, self-serving perpetrators continue to abuse citizens by neglecting their families' need for jobs, education, and other human necessities that leave the country in shambles while our representatives go on "much needed vacations".

I ask you, measuring the devastating effects of the debt-ceiling vote as an example, who are more destructive to families, who are more ruthless and remorseless, who are more traumatizing to innocent people, the tyrants killing their citizens and leaving them to die painfully in the streets of Libya, Somalia, and Syria; or our elected officials such as, groups of extremist Republicans and their kowtowing, Congressional subjects who may leave even more citizens in the streets?

In the final tally, isn't it evil to kill poor Americans, particularly our children and elderly, by denying them food, medical attention, and many other human needs? Isn't it as cruel for us to do these things as it is for the foreign tyrants to dehumanize their people? What is your definition of evil by neglect, evil by narcissistic deception, evil by winning-at-any-cost politics inherent int the stated commitments to destroy our government? It is sickening to hear politicians say that winning the voting fight made them happy and satisfied having gotten what they demanded and more. My definition of evil includes these behaviors and others already planned like, "We will not permit any tax increases, especially any that bother the very rich one percent of the citizenry or the giant, for-profit corporations that are willing to send manufacturing jobs overseas rather than create jobs at home for our suffering workers once thought to be "We the people".

We are told to keep religion out of government. Impossible! We cannot separate our moral values and ethical standards from any part of individual or social human living. What I have written here cries out for personal morals and ethical values. Love, compassion for our brothers and sisters, feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and protecting our children have become mere shadows in the darkening Congressional halls or images now gone based on what we have experienced in America this week.

"The Good Old Days" in America?

                      “The Good Old Days” in America?

Stop building the Mosque in New York City. Persons different than me scare me; I hate them and want to hurt them. Ignore his birth certificate; the President is not an American. I pay the media to lie; ignorant people accept my lies; so, it pays to lie. We still practice school segregation in the South, probably throughout the nation. Power and profit are the American dream. Just say, “No” no matter how it hurts people in need. We used to be one country like one family, but the past is the past. Pledge allegiance to the soft underbelly of the United States.

We are living in times when our words and actions expose our collective values and personal identities like mirrors reflect a country or us as individuals. It is reasonable to say that these reflections let us and others see our morals, wisdom and ignorance, as well as, our love and hate measured by living lives of good, bad, and evil.

While this is true, we still have a clash of denial and blame. Are we living in a world of change energized by conflicts between good and evil? First, the word evil must be understood because so many of us claiming to be good, truthful, loyal, and patriotic do many cruel, destructive acts perpetrating pain and trauma that are bad or evil by definition. If that is evil, then what is good?

Another way to understand what good, bad, and evil are is to begin by asking ourselves, “What would Jesus Christ say or do in this moment of decision and action?” God’s words and behaviors essentially would be good; in other words, loving, compassionate, and charitable. This is what He said and did two-thousand years ago and what the Holy Spirit is saying and doing today. There should be no confusion about this because His words and actions were and must still be the same as the Eternal taught us in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule, the Our Father, as well as, other lessons and modeling found in the Scriptures and many of the Apocrypha. This means that if our living is not loving, compassionate, or charitable, we are not living as God directed; therefore, how we live is not good. Of course, what we say and do may be a combination of good and bad, which is to be sorted out at our final harvest. So, what is this good, bad, or evil construct? Perhaps, bad acts are destructive mistakes requiring justification by their correction and our remorse. If what we do and say are clearly bad with no good in them, executed definitely or tentatively, and are meant to be destructive and painful to others with no intent for redress and remorse, they are evil.

Consider the reality of what we do knowingly, speaking and acting in opposition to the way Jesus lived and directed us to live. Examples of this in today’s cultures being expressed by our words and behaviors could include: giving to the rich at the expense of the poor, meek, and mild; spreading hate instead of being peacemakers in search of justice; defying His telling us to be innocent and trusting like, “these little ones” as Jesus presented children who will inherit heaven, warning anyone who would harm “these little ones” by such as, neglect, deceit, attacks of terror, shock and awe, and depriving them food or healing. He said that what you do to the least of my people, you do to Me.

Where does one begin to reexamine our individual and collective motivations and behaviors recognizing that such a list would be very long and common including: war, starvation and torture, performing evil to increase power and profit for the rich, man’s part in destroying the earth by global warming and contamination, as well as, personal abuse and trauma driven by ignorance and hate. What a short list this is when considering all the chaos, the pain, and the stench of evil that we create and must breathe in every moment of every day.

Oh, for “the good old days”! This saying is expressed by some in a sigh with feelings like those belonging in a dream, or a desire for those times that were so pleasing we hold on to them dearly, these revered memories. Then there are other meanings for the good old days that are more pragmatic sighs coming out of phenomenological fatigue, particularly if we think about current conditions of bad and evil as just another place or period in a historical continuum. We must continue to long for “the good old days” and protect those special moments of sharing and happiness, and not give into the belief that life must consist of continual conflict and senseless stress.

From a historical perspective, were there ever times without war, tolerated abuse perpetrated by one or more humans or their institutions directed at other humans and their institutions? Does any young or old adult remember times without wars, domestic and community violence, financial, ethnic or class conflict? Were there ever universal good old days except those times and relationships that were set like diamonds in human settings of intimacy?

These are depressing polemics. We humans, our understanding and wisdom, or to the contrary our ignorance and hate are in constant change. Nothing is fixed in the physical universe or psychological and spiritual reality except for love and compassion. The inverse to thinking and behaving contrary to loving and being compassionate creates ever growing realities of conflict.

Our emotions can easily become enmeshed in the continuum of hate and evil, which can cause us to forget how it truly was in “the good old days”. There are so many things to overwhelm us today that, when looked at closely, are the same troubles man has created over and over again over millennia that blind our minds to wondrous moments of togetherness and peace. They can remain ours to live, but not passively. Those special moments of “the good old days” truly existed during marriages, births and other intimacies in our collective family lives. They are made to come alive in us and our brothers and sisters through love and compassion. Ah, but what about this world of ours full of hate and evil? We must knowingly resist its decadence by awareness through the grace of God.

drjimfullyalive@gmail.com

http://drjim-fullyalive.blogspot.com

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Veterans Thrown Away

In the USA now and for many years, veterans or veterans to be, now on active duty having served many tours of combat regardless of their branch of service, regulars, reservists, or National Guard, in combat or awaiting orders to ship out are frequently treated as assets, but expendables or a drain on our capital resources that contribute to the national debt.

Too often in the halls of Congress and countless board rooms all over the country, veterans are considered to be numbers. You can hear, “How many do we need; what will it cost to train and outfit them; where’s the funding coming from?” Often the politically correct response is, “The treasury has more than enough money to cover this budget line item, and besides, it is our policy whether realistic or not requires that we support these numbers, our troops. This is the USA; we’re Americans, people who do not accept defeat; therefore, we must win even though the criteria for winning or an outcome signifying success is not clear. So, keep saying we must support our troops, the brave men and women many of whom, if they survive, will be old enough to drink in a few short years.

Also, in the halls of Congress and countless board rooms, lobbyists from profiteering corporations are executing their duties to company shareholders, ‘negotiating’ or possibly pressuring law-makers to pass this amendment or filibuster that amendment. Interestingly, some of these lobbyists may be wasting their time and money when you consider that many of our elected officials just say ‘no’ to legislation that is needed by veterans and their families if doing so is politically self-serving.

What I have just said about self-serving no-sayers, may resonate in our heads for a while, because it sounds like what we heard during recent voting for health care to keep citizens alive while trying to reduce their pain; creating jobs; preventing home foreclosures; protecting our families from toxic chemicals; and educating our young people. There should be signs posted at Congressional doors stating, “Get out of the way, or risk being trampled on by more hungry, less fortunate countries that are educating themselves and working in ways that could make America a second or third class nation.”

Our little life boats are awash with political polemics, deceit and manipulative word games forever being foisted on “we the people”. The media bombard us with deceptive ads while journalists rant on assuming we are gullible, naïve, hateful, and somewhat dimwitted. Could this be true? Many of the groups paying for this media mania have been known to lie. Well now, could this be true? Can any of us believe that our own elected officials and corporations from here and abroad would lie? It seems that lying and financial abuse have been justified by the Supreme Court’s decision stating that corporations have the same rights as us truly human citizens; thereby, allowing them to spend all the money they want to continue controlling our elected officials.

Maybe it is futile; however, let me point out to the emerging clans of Constitutionalists that they need not worry about our government becoming socialistic; too late. The Government has been performing in socialist ways even as the Constitution was being written, and we’re still here. Actually, what should be pointed out is really scary. There is a hidden government in the USA. Remember the maxim, “Those who control the purse strings control the government?” The corporations, mostly the for-power-and-profit, multi-national corporations control things, which means governing those who govern our country. Just look at so many energy, financial, munitions, and insurance companies to mention only a few corporate groups that effectively do what they want whether legal, moral or otherwise, making sure that a privileged few get what is to me obscene rewards for their managerial misdeeds.

A few weeks ago, I e-mailed President Obama having heard he announced that our country will finally provide therapy for all veterans suffering from PTSD. He pointed out that the VA can no longer deny veterans treatment they so courageously earned. He underscored what any real and competent psychotherapist should already know that a person can suffer PTSD and other dissociative disorders by observing and experiencing trauma without having his or her own guts blown out. I am a recently retired psychotherapist having practiced for over thirty years, most of the time working with victims of domestic, community, and combat trauma.

For many of those years, I would get word-of-mouth referrals from chronically abused and traumatized victims, some of whom had been seen and released often worse off than when they first went to veteran’s hospitals expecting to receive competent help they desperately needed. A few years ago, I experienced that the VA in the region of my practice had hired therapists that could do this work. So, I assumed the same therapeutic credentials would be required throughout the VA community across the country. Recent data and the President’s statement tell me that I was very mistaken about our veterans receiving the help, the bill for which they so dearly paid. They did their jobs even when many jobs they were given were unjustifiable, certainly misguided. Tell us, you in your Congressional halls and you in your board rooms, why you don’t meet our troops lying in their boxes on airport tarmacs, visit the wounded in hospitals, and make certain that those making intake diagnoses, conducting therapy, and are responsible for providing follow-up care make sure veterans and their families get proper support .

I have heard PTSD used as the latest buzz word in the media. Often it is used incorrectly, as are many other physical-emotional disorders. What has been reported is that the VA or people funding therapy have been making wounded veterans prove that they are so traumatized. Get real! By the nature of dissociative and other disorders, the brain’s survival defense reactions to experiencing trauma are to neurologically bury the damned experience. How can anyone who was put in the decision chain expect traumatized victims to prove what their minds are physically, emotionally, and visually burying? Those responsible for this demand should prove they have the ability, not to mention any right, to keep their jobs. Can we ask a veteran who had his buddy torn apart before his or her eyes, or a little child who has been sexually abused by a family member, a big, bad adult who was supposed to be trusted, prove they have buried experiences that their minds naturally hid at the time and place of the event? Come on prove it. How ridiculous!

I discuss trauma to veterans, children and vulnerable adults in depth in my book “How the Family Goes, So Goes Everything; It Is Up to Us”. It is available from Amazon, as well as, other distributers and websites. I am somewhat reluctant to mention my book at this time, but the whole subject of chronic abuse and trauma, how victims can reconstruct their lives, become happy, and have healthy relationships is greatly misunderstood. This must be changed.

www.drjim-fullyalive.blogspace.com